Hello! I am a third year student at the University of St Andrews undertaking a joint Honours in Art History and Geography. I am interested in the intersection of the visual arts and the climate crisis; exploring the interactions between artists, cultural institutions, and the environment, past and present, as well as imagining what future interactions may look like.
In my first summer with Laidlaw I undertook a research project on the environmental impact of digital practice in museums and heritage institutions. This project delved into carbon costing, water usage of data centres, and the new age of digital colonialism with mineral extraction and e-waste disposal - highlight the great ecological, economic, and social impacts of increasing digital activity. My research implemented the concept of Active Hope. I explored how different experiences of hope across and in curation with different communities could write another story of our time. I questioned how hope could be the central axis for social and environmental change within digital policy in museums.
During my second summer I had the privilege of working in Paris working with the NGO Karuna-Shechen for my Leadership in Action. I wrote the sixth edition of their key philanthropy output: 'Letters to our Friends'. Centred on the theme of Hope, I carried the insights from my first year into my conversations with colleagues across the field in India and Nepal. I wrote articles that captured the charities' commitment to alleviate poverty and how they passed agency back into the hands of the communities they support.
Allyson Grace Chai Yi Jing
Psychology and Social Anthropology undergraduate student, University of St Andrews
Researching climate finance in Scotland - How to Fix the Hurdles that Prevent Funds from Reaching Net-Zero Housing Projects?
Studying economics with a concentration in finance.
Currently a second-year medical student at the University of St Andrews, with an interest in medical ethics and humanities.
Physics undergraduate at the University of St Andrews.